by Ali Parker
My mother nodded. Her bottom lip trembled. “I’m sorry, Jasper.”
“I’m sorry too,” I said softly.
My father stepped out of the corner of the room. “So am I.”
Everyone looked at him.
He wrung his hands. “Jasper is right. I have a lot to atone for. And unfortunately, not enough time to do it. And I fear a simple apology won’t cut it either.” His eyes settled on me. “Can we talk later?”
Gigi looked desperately between us. She wanted me to bury my resentment and anger. Maybe this was the way to do it, by starting a conversation. Maybe I could come to understand my father a little more.
“Sure,” I said. “Mom?”
Her chest rose and fell with labored breaths. She’d put up such a fight that she’d exhausted herself.
I looked her in her eyes. “I know this hurts. And I know you’re mad at us. And I know you think we’re trying to make this harder on you. But we’re not. And when you come out the other side, you’ll see that. Trust us. Trust me. Please. This will all get better. And I’ll always be in your corner.”
Her chin dimpled and tears streamed down her face.
“But right now, I have to go,” I said. I knew it didn’t look good. The follow through wasn’t there. But Gigi was right. There was a girl waiting for me that I had made promises to. I would not let her down.
So I left them to sort it out on their own for the first time in ages.
And it felt liberating.
I was twenty minutes from the reunion venue when I pulled into a parking lot in a somewhat rundown part of the city. It was a small strip mall and night had just fallen. The sky was still slightly lit up to the west and the stars were beginning to appear in the east.
I parked the Porsche along the side of the mall to avoid it getting dinged by other drivers opening their car doors into it. It had happened one too many times for my liking, especially in a place like this.
I walked back around to the front of the mall, where I popped into a florist shop that would be closing in the next five minutes. I spent four of those minutes deliberating over which bouquet of flowers to buy for Vanny. I didn’t even know if she was a flower kind of girl. All I knew is I wanted to make this night special somehow, and all the time I would have used to plan something had been stolen by my impromptu visit to the hospital.
It was still weighing on my mind. Leaving them behind felt wrong and right, all at the same time. It was conflicting yet empowering to wash my hands of it all and choose something for once that brought me happiness and fulfillment.
Vanny.
If all went well tonight, I’d be able to really call her mine when it was all said and done. No more fake rings and fake dating. It could be real. There was something between us and there was nothing she could say to change my mind. No matter how many games she tried to play and how much she tried to pretend this was all a charade, I knew better.
This thing was real.
It had been since that first night after the club, eating pizza with her. I’d known it then that there was something special about the girl. And it wasn’t her affinity for Mountain Dew that drew me in. Or her curves. Or the way she pursed her lips when she was thinking hard or scrunched her nose when she didn’t like something. It was deeper and so much stronger than what I’d felt for Trish.
For the first time in my life, I knew what love felt like.
And it was fucking terrifying.
I picked the fullest bouquet of flowers the shop had to offer. They were dusted in fine shimmering powder that made them look magical and I concluded they were the perfect gift on a night like this.
A night where everything was going to change for us.
I paid stepped out into the night to head back to my car. I fished my keys out of my pocket and unlocked the doors. The lights flashed.
And then someone knocked the keys out of my hand.
“What the fuck—”
A fist slammed into my jaw. I hit the pavement before the flowers, which were promptly crumpled under a pair of mud-stained brown boots.
“Nice ride, bitch,” the owner of the boots spat.
I pressed my fingers to my jaw and the corner of my mouth where my lip had been split by the blow. I hadn’t been punched in a good couple of years. The surprise of it left me disoriented. The pain left me furious. I braced myself with my hands on the pavement and pushed up to my hands and knees.
Someone pressed a boot to my side and pushed me back down.
“Stay down, tough guy.”
I peered up at the men towering over me. There were three. At least I was pretty sure there were three. My vision was a bit blurry and unreliable after the blow to the jaw. I shook my head to clear the lingering dizziness.
“Give us your wallet.”
Fuckers. You picked the wrong night to mess with me.
I’d been jumped before. I could handle three goons looking for targets outside a shitty strip mall. No fucking problem. In fact, I was almost grateful for it. Their faces would make perfect punching bags for me to unleash all my pent-up frustration on.
“Your wallet, bitch!” one of them yelled.
I held up my hands and spat blood on the pavement. “Hang on.” I patted down my pockets. My wallet was in my front pocket. It wasn’t visible. So I pretended it wasn’t there. I put on a good show of looking for it though, the patting of my pockets growing more frantic as I checked them three times over. “Shit. I think I left it in the store.”
One of them snickered. “Guess we’ll just take the car then.”
“On your feet, jackass.” Another took my arm and hauled me to my feet.
That was his mistake. He got too close.
I drove my fist into his gut. He grunted and doubled over, presenting the back of his neck, and I drove my elbow down into it, sending him sprawling on the pavement.
The two men left standing were big dumb ox type looking goons. Both had flat noses that had obviously been broken before. One had cauliflower ears. A fighter for sure. The other was taller and lean, a lightweight, but a tough-looking guy nonetheless. When he smiled, he showed off two missing front teeth.
I raised my fists to shield my face. “Come and get it, fuckers.”
Chapter 35
Vanessa
I drummed my fingers on the table. There was a little nametag on my plate with my name on it. Whoever had written it had made the first few letters too big. The others were smaller to compensate, but the last three letters of my last name never made it onto the card.
They probably figured it didn’t matter.
If it had been Stormy’s card, they would have rewritten it all together. Or used a printer like a normal person.
“Relax,” Kim said, putting her hand over mine to still my anxious finger drumming. “He’ll be here.”
“He’s over twenty minutes late.”
“Yeah. Well. Shit happens. Maybe he got caught in traffic.”
“It would have to be some pretty spontaneous traffic.” Kim and I hadn’t hit any traffic on our way to the hotel. In fact, it had been smooth sailing straight through. Our predicted forty-five-minute drive had only taken thirty-five minutes. Kim had used those ten extra minutes to give me a much-needed pep talk in the front seat of her car. I’d almost bailed. I didn’t want to be here. I was so fucking nervous.
And Rhys was supposed to be here with me. We’d been planning this for weeks. And yet, here I was, sitting with Kim and waiting for the others at our table to arrive.
“I knew this was going to happen.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“That what was going to happen?”
“That he was going to stand me up and that I was nothing but a big fat joke to him. Literally.”
“Vanny. Stop with that. You’re not fat. And Rhys doesn’t think you’re a joke.”
“How can you know that?”
“I just do.”
“I just do,” I mocked in a high-pitched voice. Then I frowned.
“Sorry. That was mean. I know you’re just trying to help.”
“And I know your bitchy side comes out when you’re nervous. Here. Have some of my wine.”
I accepted the offer and sipped at her glass of red wine. I peered around the small ballroom as it filled up. This was literally my worst nightmare. Every single person who set foot in the room brought back a traumatic memory of high school. All the jocks and the mean girls and the cool kids were sitting in one corner of the room. Their group continued to expand until there were almost fifty of them, while the rest of the tables were still missing fifty percent of their guests.
It looked like other people had been smarter than me and stayed home.
I sighed. “I could be curled up on my sofa with a Parker novel right now.”
“There will always be time for that. How many opportunities are you going to get to see your old friends?”
I laughed bitterly. “I don’t have old friends from high school, Kim. Just tormentors.”
“That’s not true. Jackson was a friend. Hailey too.”
“Hailey only went to our school for tenth grade and then she was gone. I hardly think that counts.”
I sighed and stared at the ring on my left hand.
Kim nudged my shin with the toe of her black pump. “Hey. He’ll come. And if he doesn’t, I can pretend to be your wife instead.”
“Oh yeah. Cause people will believe the hottest girl in school married the class whale.”
“Vanny. Enough of that shit. It really bothers me when you talk like that about yourself.”
I turned the ring upside down on my finger so the diamond was hidden in my palm. “Truthfully, you mean?”
She glared at me.
I didn’t laugh. “I’m working through it with my shrink, okay?”
“Work harder.” Kim took her wine back and finished the glass. Then she set it down and craned her neck to look back toward the entrance. People were still filing in.
“Are you waiting for someone?” I asked.
“Yeah. Rhys. So he can deal with your moody ass instead of me.”
She was right. I was being a sorry sport. Kim liked going to high school and she’d been looking forward to tonight for months. I was being a bad friend. “I’m sorry, Kim. I’m just really uncomfortable. And this was supposed to go differently.”
She put her hand on my knee. “I know, babe. It’s okay.”
I forced myself to smile and she smiled back. Then she slumped back in her chair and lifted her empty wine glass in the air until one of the servers walking around noticed and came around to fill it up. When she had a fresh glass, she turned back to me. “I have something to tell you that will distract you from your woes.”
“Oh. By all means, distract me.”
Kim’s eyes danced with excitement. “Don’t judge me. But I think I have a crush.”
“A crush?” I asked, skeptical. “What do you mean a crush?”
“As in feelings. For a dude.”
“What dude?”
She licked her lips nervously. “He may or may not be one of my clients.”
“Kim!”
“What? It’s not like I’m going to intervene and break up his marriage or anything. I can’t help that I’m into him. He’s so fucking sexy. Like crazy sexy. And he’s loaded, which is a nice perk, but not the be all and end all, you know?”
I frowned. I didn’t like the sound of this. Kim had had the hots for some of her wedding couples before but nothing was ever serious. As soon as the wedding passed and she wasn’t exposed to them anymore, the feelings went away. They never ever got in the way of her doing her job.
“When is his wedding?” I asked.
“They haven’t set a date yet. They’re looking at venues, and once they pick one, they’ll settle on a date.”
I shook my head. “You’d better find a way to distance yourself. They haven’t even picked a venue yet? That means you have a lot of work still to do with them.”
“Yep.” Kim giggled and sipped her wine. “Months of it.”
“Bad idea.”
“Says the girl with the fake engagement to the wealthiest bachelor in Nashville.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “Touché.”
“I can’t help that I’m crushing on the guy, okay?”
We were interrupted when a familiar face arrived at the table in a suit and tie. It was Jackson, the infamously terrible setter-upper of Kim’s recent dates. He stood at the edge of the table and pointed at the spot beside me, where the nametag read Jackson Smithe. He pulled out the chair and straightened his jacket.
“Ladies.”
Kim arched an eyebrow and swirled her wine as he took his seat. “Jackson.”
He looked back and forth between us and let his confused gaze settle on Kim. “Did I interrupt something?”
“No.” She sipped her wine. “But you did send me on a series of dates with complete and total assholes. I’m beginning to think you might hate me, Jackson.”
“Who could ever hate you, Kim?” he teased.
“I’m sure several people,” she said.
He laughed. “Look. I’m sorry. Usually, I’m pretty good at pointing people in the right direction. But missteps happen.”
“Three in a row?” She glowered.
“Sometimes.” He shrugged one shoulder and turned to me. “It’s nice to see you, Vanny. It’s been a while. How are you?”
I gave him a smile. I’d always liked Jackson. He was one of the few people who was actually nice to me in high school. He’d even stood up for me when nobody else would and I appreciated his support even now. “I’m good. I’d rather be anywhere else but here, but I’m good.”
“Right?” He laughed and swept his gaze around the room, soaking in the sight of familiar faces aged by ten years. He scoured the crowd and shook his head when his gaze landed on Stormy. She was wearing a pink dress with giant hoop earrings and a sparkly clutch. “Some people haven’t changed at all.”
“Oh fuck,” Kim breathed. “Turn around, Jackson. She’s coming over here.”
“So what?” he asked innocently.
I twisted around in my chair, faced forward, and hoped like hell she didn’t notice the upside-down diamond-studded band around my ring finger. Her heels clicked on the floor in rhythm to the old nineties song playing through the DJ’s speakers in the middle of the room. Her hips swayed and her hair swished and she plastered a pretty smile on her full pink lips as she arrived at the table.
“Where’s Rhys?” she asked.
Jackson frowned and looked at me and Kim.
Stormy flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Rhys Daniels? Isn’t he supposed to be here tonight, Fat Fanny Vanny?”
Kim growled like a rabid dog. “Hey, Stormy? Is it true what all the guys said that you used to give head to under the bleachers?”
“Excuse me?” she asked sharply.
Kim kept going. “Do you have a tongue so big you wake up choking on it every night?”
Jackson chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.
Stormy stuck out her tongue at Kim. “I’ll have you know I have a wonderful tongue. Ask your brother, Fanny. I mean, Vanny.” She giggled softly. It was the same torturous laugh I’d grown used to in my high school days. “Better yet, just ask Jackson. He knows from personal experience. I have an exceptional tongue, don’t I?”
Kim scoffed. “You’re not doing yourself any favors, Stormy.”
“I’m not here to impress anyone, Kimberly. Unlike some people.” Stormy looked at me when she said those last words.
I went stiff in my seat and couldn’t think of a thing to say. Had I known I’d be sitting here by myself and without Rhys as backup, I might have had some witty things prepared to say. Actually, chances were low I would not. I simply wouldn’t be here. I’d be safe and sound at home with a book and takeout Thai food, shame free.
And some Mountain Dew.
My mouth instantly started watering.
“So is Rhys not coming?” Stormy asked.
“He’s late,” Kim said.
“Pity.” Stormy pouted her perfect lips. “I was going to invite him to come sit with us. He doesn’t belong over here. But you kids knew that already.”
Jackson chuckled again. “Thanks for the genuine high school experience, Stormy. It’s been a slice. You’d better get back to your squad before you start losing cool points.”
“Good point, Jackson.” Stormy smiled sweetly. Then she bent down and traced his jaw with her finger. “For the record, you really grew into this jaw of yours. If you’re ever looking for a fun night, hit me up on one of my socials. I’m sure you know where to find me. Yeah?”
“Uh…” Jackson trailed off.
Stormy turned on her heel and marched off.
Jackson turned back to me and Kim. “What the hell just happened?”
Kim and I spoke in unison. Our tones were dry and flat. “You just got Stormy’ed.”
He shivered. “Fuck me. I feel like I need a scalding hot shower now.”
“You probably do,” I said.
“That’s karma for setting me up on so many shit dates,” Kim said, flashing him a devilish smile. “Now. Where’s your date? I didn’t expect you to arrive solo.”
He shrugged. “No dice. My sister Jackie was supposed to come as my plus one but she couldn’t swing it with work. I asked Hailey but she was busy, too. Actually. No. Not busy. She said, and I quote, ‘why the hell would I want to go spend the night with your old classmates.’”
“I always liked Hailey,” I said. I envied her right now. She wasn’t anywhere near this shit show.
Jackson rested his forearms on the table. “Vanny. What was Stormy going on about Rhys Daniels being here tonight? He’s like, four years older than us. Why would he be at our reunion?”
“Erm. No reason. I think she got confused.”
The mention of Rhys reminded me how uncomfortable I was. And embarrassed. It was only a matter of time before dinner was served and this thing turned into a full-blown dance.
I didn’t want to be here when that happened.
“You know what, you guys? I’m not feeling very well. I think I’m going to call it a night.” I fished my phone out of my clutch.